Laravel Factory Scaffold Skill

Use this skill when defining test data generators for Models.

Conventions

1. Sensible Faker Data

• Use $this->faker methods that match the column type contextually.

• Email: safeEmail() (never real emails).

• Text: paragraph() or sentence() depending on length.

• Enums: fake()->randomElement(Enum::cases()) .

2. State Methods

• Create state methods for every boolean flag or status enum in the model.

• This makes tests readable: User::factory()->active()->admin()->create() .

public function admin(): static { return $this->state(fn (array $attributes) => [ 'role' => UserRole::Admin, ]); }

public function suspended(): static { return $this->state(fn (array $attributes) => [ 'suspended_at' => now(), ]); }

3. Relationships

• For "BelongsTo" relationships, create the parent factory by default in the definition.

'user_id' => User::factory(),